Grab an Ore!

February 1, 2018 3:05 pm

117

by Amelia Anderson

Said Councilman Krekorian at his 1/18 Town Hall on Homelessness at LA Valley College. “Cause this homeless crisis has an incredible sense of urgency, a crisis like I’ve never seen in my lifetime. We have to get to work!

I apologize for omitting details of “A Teacher’s Gift of Life” due to technical error in my January 12 article on which I based my story. An example of what limitless creativity can achieve, it may inspire this story as well. As reported by Jeff Glore on CBS Evening News, Thursday, January 4, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, it’s an example of what limitless creativity can achieve, and it’s an inspiration to this to this story as well.

Donna Hoagland, a 4th grade teacher at Marsh Point Elementary, became concerned about her student, Troy Volk, who was not doing well in class the past year. Taking him aside, she inquired if problems had arisen in his homelife. He blurted out that his mother was in failing health and pain, because she needed a kidney transplant.

Hugging Troy, Donna asked to visit his mother. The women discussed the fact that his mom’s blood type was so rare, it was seemingly impossible to find a donor. Initiating research on her own, Donna included medical verification of her own blood type. The results were astonishing. Her blood type was also rare, creating a match.

Phoning back to Troy’s mother, Donna offered the donation of her own kidney. Shocked, but overwhelmed with joy, Troy’s mom tearfully accepted what she labeled as “God’s miracle!” The transplant took place over Christmas break, and all are doing well.

Councilman Krekorian grapples with problems, too, with 34,000 Angelino’s living without a home, and 57,000 countywide. 4% live in District 7, that’s 1,360 to get a sense of perspective. Even after throwing in all available resources, our overall increase is 23%. “People move here. We have the least affordable rents in the U. S. Salaries don’t keep up. We didn’t foresee this situation 40-50 years ago.”

Voters helped. City Measure HHH provides 1.2 billion in bonds to build 10,000 apartments in the next 10 years; funded by County Ballot H, the quarter cent increase on goods for management. City provides land and building, and is currently donating 12 parcels of city owned land for development. County provides social service.

Our biggest tool is the CES, the computer Coordinated Entry System, recently developed to coordinate all city and county services to assess and GPS all homeless candidates. It prioritizes case load, is more efficient and saves money. Our Homeless Count on January 23 will bounty funds from the Federal Government to LAHSA, Los Angeles Homeless